Effects of charge exchange in the tail of the heliosphere

Abstract

Physical processes in the tail of the solar wind interaction region with the partially ionized local interstellar medium are investigated in the framework of a self-consistent kinetic-gas dynamic model. It is shown that the charge exchange process of the hydrogen atoms with the plasma protons results in disappearance of the contact discontinuity at sufficiently large distances from the Sun. The solar wind plasma temperature decreases and, ultimately, the parameters of the plasma and hydrogen atoms approach the corresponding parameters of the unperturbed interstellar medium at large heliocentric distances. © 2004 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.